Well, not really...I guess because all that was done backstage? Besides, all the Joeys double Frankie. ;D

"But I don't think there's so far been a Joey who didn't (understudy Frankie) -- unless you count Steve Gouveia. :)"

But Steve did "voiced(sung)" Frankie in La Jolla. That should count as sort of understudying, doesn't it? :)

Oh, wow. I almost forgot that Steve Gouveia was Joey in the La Jolla run. That would have been a must see next to Jake Speck's. Well, some will be lucky enough. ;D

Btw, how long as Dominique been there now? I'm hoping he's really settled into the role come December.

All the audition notices I've seen say Joey "may" understudy Frankie, which I suppose leaves them an out. But I don't think there's so far been a Joey who didn't -- unless you count Steve Gouveia. :)

Are all Joe Pescis possible understudies for the Frankie role, and is that a requirement for being cast in that part? Though I'm not sure if it's true of all Pescis or casts.

This is my first posting. I've seen Jersey Boys 6 times from NYC to San Fran to Vegas. The Vegas cast is awesome. I am sorry to see Jeremy leave the Vegas cast as he's truly a talented performer and a joy to watch. I wish him the best in Toronto. I am glad to see people writing about Jonathan Rodriguez as Joey... you don't see many posts about the Joey character but it's a great role and people may not realize what a big role it is. Not only do the Joey's have to sound like Joe Pesci, they double Frankie's voice for a majority of the show. Jonathan's Pesci voice and comedic timing are impeccable. And his doubling of Frankie's voice is so seemless, it truly sounds like one voice. So kudos to Jonathan and all the Joeys for a job well done. I hope to get back to Vegas before the end of the year and will be sure to see JB for the 7th time.

Steph: Thanks for sharing photos! Jeremy and Erich look great!

I'm going back this coming Sunday and Monday! XD Getting my JB tickets for Sunday. Will be seeing Phantom on Monday.

Fresh in from my amazing "almost birthday" trip to Vegas. I had the BEST time. We were only in town for one day since we had to schedule between my brother's gigs, but it was a great day. I saw Jeremy's final two Vegas performances, and they were both fantastic. This was my first time to see Dominic as Frankie. He has an excellent voice and did a good job. I still think Rick is my favorite Frankie though :)

I had good seats in the front of the orchestra for the first show, but to save money I bought the balcony seats for the second show. We lucked out though, since as we came in, they upgraded our tickets to third row orchestra! I guess that's the one plus to the sparse audience of the 10 o clock shows...the 7 o clock show was packed and lively. They were laughing at all the right moments, and really getting into it. There was great energy at that performance. 10 o clock was a bit more mellow, but not a bad audience overall.

After the show I convinced my brother to hang around to see if they guys would come out, since I missed them on my other two trips...and they did. I briefly met Erich, Jeff, and Jeremy. They were all so sweet and kind, especially with it being Jeremy's last show and them being on thier way out to a celebration I'm sure. Have to say I feel kind of bad for cutting off my conversation with Jeff a little short, but I got really excited when I spotted Jeremy and rushed over there to meet him...hence no pic of Jeff :)

Here are some links to a couple of pics if you're interested:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/steph0819/VegasAugust08002.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/steph0819/VegasAugust08003.jpg (just wish my eyes weren't closed in this one :) )

Kristofer McNeeley was Tommy. He was really good.

So who was on as Tommy?

I just got back from Vegas, the cast is wonderful. My Vegas experience was interesting. First off, I bought tickets for the Thursday night show. When I got there I found out that Jeremy was not on that night. I was devastated. He is my all time favorite person. The show was fabulous though. I loved Erich Bergen, he is a wonderful Bob, and Jeff Leibow was fantastick as Nick. I waited around after the show and was fortunate enough to meet Erich, what a nice guy. I was so bummed Jeremy wasn't there though. So I bought tickets for the Saturday 7:00 show.
I was there early enough for the cast arrivals, but when Jeremy showed up his hands were full and he looked rushed so I didn't want to bother him. I was so happy to see him as Tommy again, especially since this is the last chance I will have to see him. The cast didn't come out after the show because they had to get ready for the 10:00 show. So I went back to the Palazzo the next day. I waited around for over an hour and just when I was about to leave Jeremy showed up. I was so nervous, but he was so nice. That absolutely made my trip! I got to see JB twice and I got to meet Jeremy, I really couldn't have asked for more.
I'm going back to Vegas in November and I already have my tickets booked. The house was full for both shows I saw and the audience was very receptive and cheered and laughed in all the right places.

Aw, no mohawk? ;D But no, I love Jonathan's portrayal.

Actually, it's really at this point where I can't choose anymore. =/ There's just three people I saw who played Joey that I like a lot and I've seen at least six.

I miss that cast. And I'm not surprised about how much I miss that cast.

I'm really fond of the Vegas cast.

Oh yeah, I meant to say Jonathan Rodriguez still sounds the most like the real Joe Pesci out of all the Joeys I've seen, and he doesn't do that strange (but amusing) hand-wringing thing he used to do. Also, his hair isn't like a rooster's anymore either. :)

Aw, that kind of sucks, I have to say. But I really want to see this cast again. Um, particularly Kristofer and Jeff at this moment?

AND JONATHAN!

It goes straight from "I'm tapped out" to "I don't believe this."

WHAT!?!? =O

I can't take that. =(

Oh, Kristofer. I think the only issue I'll have with seeing the Vegas cast is how depressed I'll be with some of the cuts. Like the Nick Massi cuts.

Wait. I NEVER heard about Kristofer not pressing his hand to his chest after that line.

Well, he can't now, since the line isn't there. :)

Wait. I NEVER heard about Kristofer not pressing his hand to his chest after that line.

That just depressed me. A lot.

Um, yeah. I'll just finally say that Rick is my favorite right now. But then again, seeing JMD again made things pretty mixed. There's just something else about JMD that I really like, but I can't really explain it.

I really enjoyed Jeremy's performance when he was still in Chicago.

Great review Leanna. I haven't seen Dominic, so I can't comment there. But you are spot on with everything else. I absolutely love both Jeremy's and Jeff's performances. It's hard for me to see any other Tommy or Nick.

My favorite Erich Bergen delivery is probably the "ancillary rights" line actually...followed closely by "I don't even finish my sandwich" and his final line "none of this could've happened without...Me" and I have to say I love his turn and step at the end of Oh What A Night.

Mika's one of my favorite "background" characters and I was in tears (ok, not really) when I saw the show in previews. Luckily Kristofer McNeeley is the perfect guy to work so well with such little material -- he wags his finger at Crewe at the line "How could you be tapped out?," which is something of a consolation given that he can't press his hand to his chest anymore. ;)

Back in the Sherry tour days, I did like how Erich Bergen would change the pace of his lines for comic effect (his delivery of "So, we're back to scrambling for gigs" is my favorite out of all the Bobs I've seen) and now it's kind of lost now that everything goes fast. Oh well.

Hey Leanna, you brought up a really interesting observation. I also noticed that Erich Bergen is just whipping right through his lines. I'm really surprised he doesn't trip over his own words. I believe that he really doesn't want to say them so fast but the pace of the show demands it I guess. The "ancillary rights" line is so clever and funny it almost gets lost. If I didn't know the line by heart, I wouldn't have caught it if I were seeing the show for the first time. Erich's a trooper, though. I wish they would keep to the original pace. "Short Shorts" and Frankie Nolan's "I Still Care" are cut way too short and Mika (Crewe's squeeze) is practically non-existent. God, I know too much about this show. Maybe I need a new hobby! LOL

10 p.m.: I had NEVER felt so uncomfortable during this show. Mostly because of the 10 p.m. audience -- people who I assume were drunk or extremely sluggish after a giant, greasy, overpriced meal. (And the theatre was only about 70% full.) They didn't clap where they were supposed to, but clapped for the beginning of "My Eyes Adored You." WTF? I mean, the applause didn't even last through the first bow after "Sherry," which is tragic because the four guys are directed to look impressed and shocked at the reaction.

I realize I'm going to go against the grain with my opinion of Dominic Scaglione: excellent actor, good voice, not-so-great dancing. I realize Frankie is not a heavy dancing role, and really, you just have to be able to move. The problem was his movements were very tight and awkward, and it took away from the rest of his performance.

He wasn't bad, but the strangeness of the drunken 10 p.m. audience coupled with a Frankie who didn't seem all that physically comfortable in the role was an uneasy combination. I'll just chalk it up as an off-night, because he's gotten raves elsewhere. And I really did like his "Fallen Angel." He sounded like he was really all choked up in the preceding dialog, and I think he was sniffling for real during the song.

It's going to be hard finding another Tommy I like as much as Jeremy Kushnier. He's the whole package. Total triple threat. So good with the pauses (even with Vegas's cuts and rushed pace), so hysterical with the goofy dancing, so perfect with all the angry screaming. I especially love the ridiculous leg thing he does when Nick sings, "He saaa-aaid..." in the recording studio during "Walk Like a Man." Actually, that whole scene is great because he keeps doing annoying stuff to Bob, all the way from the "I don't get it" until the conversion from the studio to the concert.

Jeremy's changed up the delivery of a few lines since I saw it in previews -- most memorably during the epilogue when he offers condolences to Frankie about Francine. You can tell it's still hard for Tommy to say anything at all that would hint at his own vulnerability, but he swallows it up and does it because it's the right thing to do.

(This is from the 7 p.m. show, but it may have happened at the 10 p.m. as well:) I'm so glad I had my binoculars up during "Stay," because I decided to watch Jeff Leibow's entire "Uncle Nick" monologue. Broke my heart. When the music started up again, he looked down at the two remaining guys like he was going to cry, half-heartedly snapped his fingers to the beat, and then walked off -- but about 3/4 of the way down the catwalk, he kind of hesitated, shook his head, and then kept going.

During the epilogue, when Tommy is talking about "this is from the people," Jeff's expression turned from its usual exasperation at Tommy to a "oh my god, he's right," and he looked really touched by the realization that people did appreciate them enough to put them in the hall of fame.

Just some of those things that make Jeff my favorite Nick!

Erich Bergen is still speeding through a lot of his lines, but I guess is enunciating them better than when I saw it in April, because he's not really losing jokes anymore. He's also gotten a lot better at showing Bob Gaudio's age progression, but he also plays younger Bob as a little more together and coherent than he used to.

The 7 p.m. show on Sunday was much better. The audience much more into it (and there were more OF them), but they were better behaved and the energy really transferred to the cast.

It's always a joy to see Rick Faugno as Frankie (or as Joey, even though that's long passed...)

I wouldn't be surprised if Rick did a ton of homework to pick up the real Frankie's mannerisms and movements, but it freaks me out every time he does it -- especially during "Big Man in Town." It's so natural. The way he looks down, the way he holds the mic and taps his foot...everything. It's pretty amazing.

Rick's mic was doing some awful things during "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" (of all songs!!), but he recovered and so did the mic. I think it threw him off a bit, though, because he didn't sound quite right for a verse or two.

Overall it was a great weekend. Back during the colder months, perhaps? :)